Malicious Curl to Shell Pipe Dropper Execution (via process_creation)

ATT&CK techniques

Execution

Recon
Resource Dev
Initial Access
Execution
- T1059.004Unix Shell
Persistence
Priv Esc
Defense Evasion
Cred Access
Discovery
Lateral Movement
Collection
C2
Exfiltration
Impact

What it detects

This rule detects a one-liner that pipes the output of curl directly into a shell interpreter to download and execute a remote payload. This fileless dropper pattern was used by the JINX-0164 threat actor targeting cryptocurrency software development infrastructure to fetch a macOS implant. Attackers use it to run second-stage code while leaving minimal on-disk artifacts.

Reporting behind it

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Malicious Curl to Shell Pipe Dropper Execution (via process_creation)

Pivot detection · T1059.004 · 9 related

Detection content is published as a reviewed draft. Tune thresholds and exclusions against your own telemetry before enabling this rule for alerting.

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